Woman Sentenced In Roommate's Stabbing

MANCHESTER — A woman charged last year with stabbing her roommate and the man's dog was sentenced in Superior Court to 2 1/2 years in prison, Superior Court officials said.

Kim E. Morin, 34, also was sentenced for stealing money from a Center Street doughnut shop where she worked. She told police that the shop had been robbed.

Morin, whose last known address was 111 Holl St., pleaded guilty to second-degree assault in the stabbing last September of John Belch, her 32-year-old roommate at the time. Belch, who pulled the folding knife out of his back, was not seriously injured.

Police had subdued Morin with a pepper-based spray after she refused to drop the knife, wrestled with officers and threw furniture and other objects at them.

Morin also was charged with stabbing Belch's dog, Jake. But prosecutors decided not to pursue the count of cruelty to animals as part of a plea bargain.

Morin's public defender, Todd Edgington, said Morin denied stabbing the dog, which was treated for wounds to his abdomen and a leg.

Prosecutors also did not pursue charges that she threatened to kill Belch and interfered with officers investigating the stabbing, which police said happened during an argument about Belch's relationship with another woman.

Belch, whose last known address was on Bissell Street, has kidnapping and assault charges pending against him in a February incident. He is accused of abducting an ex- girlfriend from the Oak Street Pub and holding her against her will for several days in her Bissell Street apartment.

In the doughnut shop case, Morin pleaded guilty to making a false statement to police last November that the Whole Donut on Center Street had been robbed by a man carrying a gun.

Morin later admitted that she made up the story to cover her theft of about $218 from the shop, according to court records. A charge of sixth-degree larceny was not prosecuted.

Judge Christina Dunnell sentenced Morin to six years in prison, suspended after she serves two years. The judge also placed her on four years of probation and ordered her to repay $218 to the doughnut shop.